Prototype 1
by Malluchan
Summary: Beneath the surface of our skin lies something more than blood and bones, a whole new person that nobody could begin to guess at, something not seen with the naked eye. Remnants of our past that we never knew, until the day reality comes crashing down and the world we carefully structured for ourselves crumbles apart. Pray that day never comes.
1. Discovery

Tsubasa looked up from the pine desk to the door of the small apartment, having heard someone's knuckles tapping against the worn wood.

"Come in."

In response to his invitation, the door burst open and a breathless Ryuto burst in, fell over his own feet, and landed on the polished hardwood floor.

Tsubasa gasped and hurried to help him up.

"Are you OK?"

Ryuto stood, gasping for breath, having obviously run here as fast as his feet could carry him. He would be sporting an impressive bruise on his right cheek eventually, thanks to the floor. But he shooed Tsubasa away.

"Don't...worry about me. Ryo needs to...see you." With this he passed out. Tsubasa left him on the couch and hurried to the WBBA headquarters.

* * *

"Sit down, Tsubasa."

Tsubasa obediently took a seat before Ryo's desk. Mr. Hagane swung his head around the room expectantly.

"Where's Ryuto?"

"He...fainted."

"Oh. So you brought him to the infirmary?"

"...No. He's on my couch."

"Well, all right. I suppose this meeting can be conducted despite his absence, seeing as it can't possibly wait."

He then told Hikaru to leave the room; she had been hovering expectantly near his chair. Tsubasa wondered what could have possibly gone wrong. Hikaru was in on just about everything that went on around the WBBA.

"Now, I need to talk to you. As you well know, we recently sent Ryuto to California to investigate the ruins of an old secret lab our satellites picked up, up on Mount Morgan. We believed that the scientists there had come up with some way to integrate non-stellar spirits into Blades..."

Tsubasa nodded, showing that he was following the conversation.

"...And we found something...disturbing. I mean, it's disturbing to me. I mean...oh, never mind. We found something about you, I mean, about your past."

Tsubasa managed to gain control of his excitement. Ryo knew he had no memories of his past, his family, where he came from; his earliest memory was from walking in the forest and finding an eaglet abandoned in its nest.

"...And I don't know how to tell you this, but you...you didn't exactly have one..."

Tsubasa started in his chair. "What did you say, sir?"

"Calm down. This is hard to say." Ryo then resumed his narration. "We found out that the Mount Morgan Lab was run by a group of scientists from Riken labs here in Japan; they broke off from the main establishment of Biological laboratories when one of there experiments went horribly wrong. They were forced to find a secluded area in America in which to continue the experiment until success was achieved. Dr. Zigurat was among them." He paused for a breath. "Ryuto found a small fire-proof safe in the wreckage containing the most important project documents...and we found this."

He pushed a thick binder towards Tsubasa, filled up with sheet protectors and small lumpy packages. He opened the cover curiously; on the top page it said, _Progress files for project AC11, prototype 1._

"As you know, Tsubasa, when we found you, you were wearing this."

Ryo held out a small wooden pendant on a thin chain. Tsubasa flipped it over. Worn to bare recognition by his old habit of rubbing it when he was bored, the text on the other side read, AC11. PRT1.

It sent chills down his spine to think about what could be in that notebook.

He flipped the cover page. Beneath, inside a sheet protector, was a small metal key that bore the same inscription as the pendant. In the next page protector was a small lock of hair, bound at the top with a thong of leather. He examined it thoughtfully. It was a silver color, just slightly lighter than his was now.

The next few pages were badly water-damaged; only a few words were legible.

_"personality assessment...getting along well...no verbal as of yet..."_

The next page was of photographs. Many were ruined by water, but one was of a young boy with another child, about the same age. They looked almost identical save that one had silver hair and the other brown. They were portrayed against a stark white wall with a barred window, faded black text against the white paint reading AC11 PRJECT QURTERS. The other letters had been worn away by the years.

Tsubasa shut the book. All of the other pages were ruined anyhow. He shoved the binder at Ryo and fled the room, unable to face anybody at the moment.

Ryo gazed at the closed door for a while after Tsubasa had left. If he'd been upset over the contents of the notebook, who knew what he'd say to the DNA assessment results of the lock of hair...


	2. Denial

Tsubasa stopped at his apartment, unsure whether Ryuto was awake or not. Then he walked in.

"YAAAAGH!" Ryuto leapt out in front of him suddenly. With a cry of surprise, Tsubasa fell backwards onto the floor, his tailbone suffering the same fate as Ryuto's face.

Ryuto laughed. "I gotcha."

Tsubasa looked away, but Ryuto caught the reflection of tears in the older boy's eyes.

"I didn't scare you that bad, did I?" And then he remembered why he'd been at Tsubasa's apartment in the first place. "...Oh...I'm just gonna leave now."

Tsubasa barely heard the door closing. He had his fist still locked around the ID necklace. He rested his head against the couch, trying to take in what he'd just read. It couldn't be true, could it? That he'd been taken into a lab for some weird sort of disease or something? Or maybe stolen as a baby and experimented on. He shuddered. This was not reality. This was a reality TV show. Or it was April Fool's Day. Or maybe he was asleep. He pinched himself, hard, and then yelped. The necklace skidded across the wood floor.

AC11. PRT1.

He threw the necklace into the far wall desperately, like its destruction could somehow make it all untrue. He wasn't a lab kid. He wasn't a freak. Well, sure, he had his odd moments. Like that time Masamune's friend Toby had been thinking about cherries with mayonnaise, and he'd somehow known exactly what was on his mind.

Or when TARGET ASSESSED flashed red on his vision, after he'd knocked his head on the pavement when he was a kid.

"Stop it! You're not helping!" He yelled at himself.

Or when he'd had a flashback of stark white walls, the sharp scent of medicine, faint red words flashing across his vision. Man's voices yelling, "Hold still, AC11." AC11. A cell number. "Hold still." TARGET ASSESSED. And then he had run.

He was running now. He didn't know when he'd started running, or why. He had to get away from that apartment, from the necklace that spelled out his past in words he couldn't understand. But he couldn't get away from the haunting white walls. White walls he'd stared at for hours each day. Memorizing the uneven patterns made by a sloppy paint job and uneven plaster.

Red text. This time in the present.

"SENSUAL OVERLOAD. SHUTTING DOWN FUNCTIONS. ASSESSING CONDITION. CONDITION UNSTABLE. SHUTTING DOWN. SHUTTING DOWN. SHUTTING DOWN..."

Red sirens blared in his ears. Red covering the edges of his vision. And then he was falling, falling to no end. A bottomless pit, giving way to darkness, thankful darkness.

* * *

The black around the edges of his vision hovered like the feathers of birds, a thousand birds fluttering on the wires of his mind.

A face hovered over his, the color of milky coffee, framed by sky blue. A name hovered at the edge of his mind, clarified by the alarming red text.

"Hikaru Hasama. Terminate?"

"No", he gasped desperately.

"What?" Hikaru stared at him intently. Unnervingly.

"Nothing."

"We found you wiped out on the pavement outside the B-Pit. What happened? Ryo said something like, 'overreacting'. But I didn't know what he was talking about."

"Uh..." so Hikaru didn't yet know about his questionable past. "Uh...I had too much coffee and I had...a reaction. To the caffeine."

"Oh. Ok." She looked convinced. Good. He didn't want anyone to know he was a freak.

"Well, Ryo wants to see you as soon as you wake up...and now, you woke up...so I guess you'd better go see him."

"Ok, Hikaru. Thanks." He stood and walked out of the WBBA infirmary towards Ryo's office.

Tsubasa silently slipped inside Ryo's office, remaining stationary at the doorway until he was noticed. Naturally, this took about 10 minutes.

"Ah, Tsubasa."

"Evidently."

Ryo's eyebrows rose slightly at this breach of personality, but he said nothing in regards to Tsubasa's rather rude comment.

"I believe you overreacted earlier..."

"Overreacted? I just found out I'm not human, and I overreacted? Really?" Tsubasa snapped. Then covered his mouth, surprised at his own outburst.

"Please sit down."

Tsubasa obeyed.

"Now, listen. I didn't finish telling you earlier. You are human." Tsubasa's expression was that of skepticism itself.

"Then why-"

"Please be quiet. Now. We analyzed the DNA sample found in the binder-" Tsubasa assumed he referred to the lock of hair "-and we found 2 identical matches. One was taken from your hairbrush."

Tsubasa imagined Ryo sneaking into his bathroom to steal his hairbrush in the night and grimaced inwardly.

"...And the other was found on Toby's sweater."

"WHAT!?" Tsubasa bolted upright, the chair falling behind him and breaking on the floor.

"Yes. Evidently, you and Toby are identical twins."

"No. No way."

"Yes, way."

Tsubasa was feeling dizzy again. Ryo clapped his hands in Tsubasa's face briskly. "Don't faint yet, I wasn't finished."

Tsubasa sat on the other chair.

"The reason you thought you weren't human is probably because of the liquid metal chip implanted in your sight receptors...and a few more tweaks to your brain that we're suspicious of. We don't have the whole story yet, but we're sending more agents out to Mount Morgan to investigate further. Okay?"

"Now can I faint?"

"No."


	3. Interlude: 1

"...In short, we're sending agents to investigate further and wondered if you wanted to go with them. We're taking you off the Amiot case because this is counted as a family crisis and is viable for a leave."

Tsubasa paced around the room. While Ryo had been talking to him, evening had set in. The lights in Ryo's office cast out a soft glow over the desk and chairs that would have created a laid-back atmosphere, if not for the circumstances.

He stopped before the desk once again.

"Okay."

"Okay?"

"Yes. Okay."

"Okay. You leave the day after tomorrow. Get some good rest, you'll need it. We're sending a team of 5: You, Toby, Ryuto, Kyouya, and Brady."

Tsubasa didn't know who Brady was. He didn't care to ask. He stumbled to bed without bothering to get dinner.

* * *

Tsubasa sat at the window on the far side of the helecarrier from everybody else. "I thought there were supposed to be 5 of us", Toby murmured to Ryuto.

"Brady's meeting us at Mount Morgan."

"Oh. Ok."

The rest of the ride carried on in silence until Kyouya let out a quiet groan.

"What?"

"How long is this ride going to last?"

"A while. I mean, we're flying to California. From Japan. In a helicopter."

More silence.

And then, "Did anybody else bring lunch?" This was Ryuto.

A chorus of affirmatives came from everyone except Kyouya.

"What, you didn't bring lunch, Kyouya?"

"Huh?...Oh, yeah, I did. I must've been asleep when you asked."

"But your eyes were open."

"I sleep with my eyes open", Kyouya explained.

"Okay. What time is it, Tsubasa?"

"1:00. At least in this time zone."

"Okay. I guess it's lunchtime, then."

Everybody pulled out their lunch except for Kyouya.

"Kyouya, aren't you going to have lunch?"

"No."

"Why?"

Toby piped up, "Is it because there's no rotting flesh of antelopes here?"

"WHAT? NO. I, uh, just don't feel hungry right now."

"You didn't bring lunch. Did you."

"...Yes. I did."

"Sure you did."

"OKAY, FINE. I didn't bring my lunch because I left it on a chair this morning and SOMEBODY SAT ON IT."

Tsubasa recalled seeing Gingka sitting on a brown paper bag before they left that morning, but said nothing.

Ryuto appeared thoughtful for a moment. "Well...I suppose we could always feed him roadkill...but we're not on a road, so that won't work. We're in the sky."

"Hey, maybe I could ask the pilot to crash into a bird! Would you like that, Yoyo? Tastes like chicken-"

"BE QUIET, YOU! AND DON'T CALL ME YOYO!"

Tsubasa worriedly regarded Ryuto, who was trying to drink milk in a moving helicopter.

Tsubasa quietly offered him some of his own lunch.

"NO!" Kyouya protested so violently that Ryuto spit milk all over Toby, who was about to throw his ham when a surprising wave of turbulence caught them all dropping everything and grabbing at the rails.

"That's what we get for trying to eat lunch on a helicopter."

Toby quietly scrubbed at his milk-covered face with a napkin while Ryuto tried to get the mayonnaise out of the seat, with no success.

The ride was not even halfway over.


	4. Acquaintance

The helecarrier's warm _whuuuum _still vibrated through the California mountain air as it grew to a tiny speck in the distance and finally disappeared. Tsubasa and the others stood on a small flat space atop the mountain, surrounded by the sparse woods that had managed to find roots in the mountainside.

"I thought there were supposed to be six of us", Kyouya complained.

"The WBBA said that the other guy would be here...Braydon? Bryce? What was his name?"

"Brady", Toby corrected him. Nobody knew who Brady was, but nobody said anything.

"Well, let's get going", suggested Kyouya.

"We should wait for Brady here. This is the meeting spot."

Kyouya huffed irritably. "Fine."

While they waited, Tsubasa could not keep still. He climbed to the top of a large boulder resting nearby and spread his arms out, his eyes shut. He thought best in high places.

He relaxed as the tension of the last few days drained with the passing of unhindered wind, his hair floating behind him, until an unwelcome voice barged through his thoughts.

"Are you trying to fly, chicken boy?"

He sighed, exasperated. "No, Kyouya. I'm trying to think."

"Leave him alone." Ryuto nudged Kyouya irritably. "We all need a minute to think." Kyouya prowled off into the trees sulkily.

Tsubasa imagined he was flying, the thoughts of the world flowing in the wind around him. He was an eagle. He was the king of birds. And then a strange thing happened.

_...on earth could he be..._

_Huh? _Where had that come from?

_...Taking him so long? He should be here by now...wish that bird guy would get off the rock and stop pretending to fly..._

Tsubasa opened his eyes and looked around. Toby was glaring at a speck on the ground, but nobody had spoken.

_...dumb old speck._

Was he reading Toby's thoughts? Ryo had said their DNA matched, but hadn't mentioned this anomaly.

Tsubasa tried projecting his own thoughts; the idea had come to him almost subconsciously.

_Why are you angry at the speck?_

Toby looked up with a jolt and Tsubasa gasped. His focus was broken and he could no longer hear what Toby was thinking.

Suddenly Ryuto looked up. Somewhere a few yards below them, a suspicious crashing echoed up, growing louder at a steady pace.

"Kyouya?" Ryuto called uncertainly.

The crashing paused for a minute. Simultaneously, Kyouya came out of the trees. "What?"

"Oh. It was just you-"

But Ryuto was cut off by the crashing noise again.

"Ow", came a mumbled voice from a few feet behind Tsubasa. Startled, he lost his balance on the boulder and fell hard into the nearby shrubbery.

"OW!" came louder this time. He rolled off the bushes and stood up, brushing himself off.

From the bushes, a dirty-blond head poked up. It belonged to a girl about Ryuto's age, a hurt expression on her face. "You fell on me!" She whined at Tsubasa.

"Oh. Sorry. Who are you, anyway?"

She stood with a bit of a bounce and said, "My name's Brady. I'm here to meet you guys and help you carry out your mission."

The boys surveyed Brady for a moment, rendered speechless. They'd been expecting another guy, not this sandy-blond bandanna'd female.

"...Are you sure?" Ryuto finally put forth uncertainly. Kyouya smacked him in the side of the head.

"Of course she's sure, dimwit."

"Yes, I'm Brady. Is there a problem?" Brady put her hands on her hips and glared at Ryuto.

"N-no. Just that Brady's a boy's name", Ryuto blurted, earning himself another smack on the head by Yours Truly.

"Let's get going", suggested Tsubasa. Brady definitely took his suggestion to heart and marched in the opposite direction from which she had come, followed by a scrambling bunch of boys.

"I can't believe we're getting led by a GIRL SCOUT", Toby muttered to Ryuto as they raced to keep up.

Kyouya was already racing with Brady to gain the unsaid rank of "Leader". They haughtily argued as they ran.

Tsubasa kept silent all the while, conserving his energy for searching through the ruins for clues of his and Toby's past.

All of a sudden they rounded a hairpin bend in the mountainside and the foreboding, crumbling walls of the forgotten laboratory loomed before them, scattered with boulders of rubble, like the crumbs of some ancient silent place that had been destroyed with one blow of an ill-timed wind.

Like the ruins of the past, the memories of a future, and the nightmare of the present.

Tsubasa skidded to a halt before the crumbling walls and felt Kyouya and Toby stop beside him. Brady was already among the ruins, and Ryuto didn't stop soon enough. He earned himself a smashed face for his carelessness.

Tsubasa stepped gingerly into the rocks of what had once been his past. He let out a breath he didn't know he'd been holding. Concentrating on his footing, he began to make his way to where Brady stood in the center of the ruins, in front of some sort of wall, squinting and muttering to herself.

He didn't know he'd made it until his bowed forehead made contact, and he looked up...

...and gasped at what lay before him.

AC11 PRT1

Stark white walls, now weathered with the hardness of age. Harsh black lettering, now faded to beyond recognition. But he knew what it said.

His hands went to the necklace at his throat as it all came back again...

..._hold still, 1..._

"...Tsubasa?"

Brady stood with her hand almost on his shoulder, a concerned expression on her face. He shook his head to clear it of the stench of medical equipment.

"It's...I'm fine. Let's keep looking."

Tsubasa glanced over to where Ryuto crouched, already digging through rubble despite his apparent face wound. Kyouya was prowling along the few still-standing walls, searching along the baseboards for more clues.

But Toby...his brother, stood uncertainly at the edge of the destruction.

_I don't know what to do_

Toby's thoughts bounced off the contours of the insides of his skull, reverberating with frightening clarity.

_What are we looking for, anyway?_

Tsubasa realized that even he didn't know.

Something, anything...and then it hit him.

They needed to find out where the scientists went. Ryuto had scoured everything from this area already; Ryuto never missed a thing. And what better way to know your past than to ask someone who'd been there from the very beginning?


	5. Onward

Tsubasa clambered to the top of what had once been a signal tower in the center of the lab, but now stood only about 4 feet tall. He waved his arms to get everybody's attention.

"Trying to fly again, chicken boy?" Kyouya inquired. Ryuto, Toby, and Brady turned their heads in his direction.

"We're looking at the wrong place."

"What?" Brady did not follow.

"What are we even looking for here?" Tsubasa challenged her.

"Clues. Clues of...of...what you are."

"But Ryuto already searched this area. And Ryuto never misses a thing."

"Are you sure?"

"Yes, he's done in 3 days what an entire team of archaeologists couldn't do in 6", Toby put in.

Tsubasa nodded in his direction and then said, "There's no better way to know your past than to ask the person responsible for it."

"WHY DID I NEVER THINK OF THAT!?" Ryuto walked over to a tree and started banging his head against it. After a moment he passed out.

Brady and Kyouya stood staring at him, dumbfounded. But Toby was looking in Tsubasa's direction.

"I think you're right", he said quietly.

After a good dunk in a nearby mountain stream- -courtesy of Kyouya- -Ryuto woke up with a gasp.

"Ok. Let's get a move on."

He got puzzled looks from the group around him.

"Get a move on, to...where, exactly?"

"Down that trail near the site."

"How do you know that's not just a goat trail, Ryuto?" Kyouya was skeptical.

"Well, where else could they have gone? There are no other paths leading out of the site", Ryuto answered, standing and shaking his wet hair out.

"They could have used a helicopter."

"Oh, okay, well, let's just follow the TRAIL THEY LEFT IN THE AIR. I CAN SEE IT CLEARLY."

"Well, the goat trail might be a waste of time."

"What is it with you and wasting time, kitty boy?...besides, it's our only lead."

And that's how the group found themselves walking down the well-worn trail towards the bottom of the mountain.

They'd been walking for almost 3 hours now. The trees rose high on either side of them as the harsh stone peaks began to give way to deeper bowls of earth, and the breeze Tsubasa had felt earlier was constricted and eventually choked out before it could reach them.

He glanced over at Toby, who was looking a little tired.

_Are you ok?_

Toby didn't seem to hear him. That was weird. He'd been able to hear Toby's thoughts just a little while ago.

It began to get dark, but Ryuto continued to lead the group on. Finally Kyouya and Brady, fallen behind now as a result of their desperate race to be first, collapsed melodramatically at the side of the footpath.

"I think we should stop now", Toby said, with an amused expression.

"Oh, good", gasped Ryuto. "I was about to pass out again."

_People have been doing a lot of fainting the past few days_, thought Tsubasa. Toby jerked beside him, startled.

Toby had heard him, and without intention. Tsubasa might have to be more careful with what he thought around Toby now.

Then a commotion brought Tsubasa out of his thoughts. Brady had shoved Kyouya and he was rolling down the sloping path.

"KYOUYA!" Ryuto cried, alarmed.

Kyouya disappeared over a sizable ridge in the mountainside. The other four raced in the direction he'd rolled and found out that the ridge was a ledge, and the ledge swung out over a 40-foot drop to the ground below. Luckily Kyouya had grabbed hold at the last minute and was climbing back up.

He rolled onto the path with a relieved gasp, and then glared at Brady.

"WHY DID YOU JUST DO THAT!?"

"IT WAS AN ACCIDENT, YOU FREAK!"

"WELL YOU SHOULD-"

"There's a village down there!" Their haughty dispute was interrupted by Toby, who stood at the edge of the ledge, pointing down to where there was indeed a small cluster of houses.

Ryuto snapped his fingers. "I'll bet someone down there saw the scientists from the lab heading this way! They've gotta remember where they went!"

Brady looked up at the darkening sky and murmured something about time.

"You're right", Ryuto said. "It's too late to make it down there before dark, and we all need a rest. Let's find a place to set up camp, and we'll go down there tomorrow."

Tsubasa didn't want to lose time finding his past, and glancing over at Toby, he sensed his brother shared the feeling. But everyone was tired; better to rest here than to reach the village tonight and pass out from exhaustion.


	6. Interlude: 2

Ok, it's time for a short humor break! Here comes Interlude 2!

This is also dedicated to my BFF Zane, who turned 14 yesterday! Happiest ever of birthdays, Zane!

* * *

Ryuto knelt beside the river. He'd agreed to help Toby catch fish for dinner.

Tsubasa was setting up the tents and Brady and Kyouya were out getting firewood. Ryuto concentrated on the clear water in front of him and waited for the shadow that meant a fish was near.

All of a sudden a flash of silver darted through the air. Ryuto's hand shot out and he pulled in a nicely sized trout.

"Here, hold this." He shoved the fish at Toby, who eagerly grabbed hold of it. Ryuto ran back to camp because he forgot his knife.

The fish flapped insistently in Toby's hands "Hey, hold still, fish." The fish answered with a skillful slap of its tail, and hit Toby square in the face.

"OW!" Startled, Toby dropped the trout as Ryuto returned.

He came in on a most unusual sight. Toby, now sporting a red fish-shaped slap mark on his cheek, was juggling the trout like a ball.

"What on earth are you doing, Toby?"

"I'm, uh, catching a fish- -"

He was cut off as the fish leapt towards him, and with a startled cry, he toppled off the bank. Ryuto ran to shore to help him up.

* * *

Kyouya could see a nice sized log a little further off the path. He went to pick it up and was surprised as the log yanked back, hard, nearly toppling him over.

"GAAH! HAUNTED LOG!" Then he saw that it was only Brady, pulling the wood away from him.

"Hey, ease off. I found the log first."

"Nuh-uh."

"GIVE IT."

"YOU GIVE IT!"

"You guys", came Tsubasa's faraway voice, "It's gonna be burnt up anyway. It's only wood, stop fighting over it."

Brady scowled and surrendered the log.

A little further down the path, out of Tsubasa's hearing range (supposedly), rested a tantalizingly large piece of wood. Instantly they both reached for it.

"GIVE IT", Kyouya snarled.

"Why should I give it to you? You're not very nice."

"PLEASE give it."

"No way."

"GIVE IT TO ME!"

"Well, first you have to beat me in an arm wrestle!"

"WHAT!? IS THAT A CHALLENGE!?"

"YES!"

About 200 yards away, Tsubasa snorted.

Kyouya and Brady dropped their wood. "Loser has to carry all the firewood. AND sleep on the ground."

"Deal."

For the next 10 minutes, they strained to bring each other down.

"You're not as strong as I thought."

Kyouya snorted. "I'm going easy on you." Lies.

"I'm bringing you down..."

"...In your dreams, you pathetic GIRL."

"GAH. Let's see who's the REAL girl!"

"YOU are actually a girl!"

"No, YOU'RE a girl!"

"NUH-UH!"

Taking advantage of this distraction, Brady pushed Kyouya's arm down to the ground. "I WON!"

"WHAT!? NO! YOU MUST'VE CHEATED OR SOMETHING! I DEMAND A REMATCH!"

"No way, kitty boy! I won fair and square, and I'd beat you again, easily!"

"IS THAT A CHALLENGE!?"

"You're carrying the wood, kitty."

"Grrrr..." Kyouya frustratedly stooped to pick up the wood and trudged sulkily down the footpath after Brady.

* * *

Tsubasa looked up from bending a tent pole to see Ryuto returning with a stick of skewered fish slung over his shoulder.

"Great job, you guys! That should be enough for everybody", he said, scrutinizing the pole thoughtfully.

"Yeah, well, I did most of the fishing. Toby here decided to go for a swim and got beaten by a 2-pound trout", answered Ryuto with a straight face.

"That would explain the fish-shaped slap mark."

"Yeah, that's very funny, guys." A dripping wet Toby sludged sulkily after Ryuto, glaring at his soaked shoes.

"I'm going into the bushes to change my clothes."

"Okay, but go to the other side of the clearing. Kyouya and Brady will be coming back the other way."

Toby shot his brother a loathsome glare and squelched into the trees.

A few minuted later, Brady marched into camp, looking extremely proud of herself.

"Where's all the wood?"

"Kyouya's carrying it."

"Why?"

"Don't ask", Tsubasa hastily advised. Ryuto gave him a strange look, but said no more. A few more minutes passed and a large pile of wood came walking into the clearing.

"Oh, hello, Kyouya", said Ryuto. Again with the straight face.

"Yeah, whatever", came Kyouya's muffled voice from behind the wood, which he dumped haughtily in the middle of the camp. After a look around, he inquired, "Where's Toby?"

"He went to change out of his bathing suit", Ryuto answered seriously.

"Ew. Don't put that picture in my mind."

"I was not wearing a bathing suit", Toby snapped through gritted teeth, emerging from the forest grumpily.

"Ew. Like I said, don't."

Toby scowled at Ryuto, who pretended to be oblivious. Brady shook her head in a mock-disapproving manner. Tsubasa sighed. "Just quit fighting and build the fire."

"Oh, who made you Mr. Boss?" Demanded Kyouya.

"Well, I'm the only one mature enough to shut my mouth and get to work, and I'm the only one who decided he'd rather NOT be up all night in the freezing rain, so I thought you could use a little help there, Kyouya."

Kyouya glared. "It's not raining, dummy." An ice-cold drop fell on his head.

"It is now."

"Wait-How did you..."

"Nevermind." Tsubasa smiled.

"And you're sleeping on the ground tonight, kitty-cat." Brady smirked and tweaked his ear.

"HEY! CUT THAT OUT!"

"Guys, we'd better build the fire and eat before we're all soaked to the bone"- here Ryuto threw a compensating look at Toby -"Again..."

Once more pretending to be oblivious to Toby's scowl, he knelt by the pile of wood and pretended to be busy.

The raindrops fell heavier by the second around the small group as Ryuto struggled to light the fire.

"Let's get the fish cooked before it's too wet", suggested Toby, trying to be helpful now.

Ryuto grimaced. "I'm afraid it's too late for that now."

"NOOO! WE HAVE TO EAT SOMETHING!"

"Didn't anybody bring anything besides yesterday's lunch?...really? Nobody brought ANYTHING? WE FLEW ALL NIGHT IN A HELICOPTER AND NOBODY BROUGHT ANY MORE FOOD!?"

Tsubasa watched as the others shook their heads.

"We'll have to eat them raw", announced Brady, grabbing a fish and walking into her tent.

The others surveyed the fish in silence, getting wetter by the second, until Kyouya said, "...Ew."

"Heh. And that's coming from the kitty boy."

"You're sleeping outside, kitty", Brady called from inside her tent. Kyouya glared at the wall of waterproof fabric before stomping off under a tree.

Toby, Ryuto and Tsubasa walked into the small 1-person tents set up around the clearing; since Brady had taken control of the 2-person tent, they were all stuck with tiny cramped ones. Long-legged boys had to endure so many worse things than short girls.

* * *

Late that night, a drenched Kyouya walked back to camp. In the dark, fish bones glistened white against the gray drizzle, right outside Brady's tent. Ew. She'd actually eaten that raw fish. Disgusting.

And they said boys were the gross ones...

From inside Toby's tent came a chomping sound; evidently he'd tried the fish too. Kyouya mumbled a complaint to the cloudy sky and curled up in the middle of the clearing, anticipating a sleepless night.


	7. Alliance

Morning on the mountain dawned with watery sunshine and air cleared by last night's rain, and Tsubasa woke with a happy feeling.

He walked out of the tent to wash is face by the river and found Kyouya asleep on the damp ground. It probably wasn't healthy to sleep outside in the middle of a rainstorm; Tsubasa left him and continued towards the river.

He returned to chaos.

Brady, Ryuto, and Toby were gathered around Kyouya, who was glaring.

"What did you say, kitty boy?" Brady smirked.

Kyouya moved his mouth but no words came out. Tsubasa parted the crowd around Kyouya and said, "It seems that our friend has lost his voice. Kyouya, it was a bad idea to sleep in the rain."

He appeared to be yelling at Brady, except the sound was turned off.

"This is a welcome change", Brady commented.

"We'd better get going," Ryuto intervened, and then started down the path.

Brady followed, complaining about her empty stomach. Toby raced after them. Kyouya glared at Tsubasa for a moment and then followed the others down the path.

Tsubasa looked around the clearing and was surprised to see that the tents were put away; however, he was stuck carrying 5 backpacks for the next half hour down to the village. But Tsubasa was not a complainer.

A long trek across flat grass fields blocked their way to the village.

"Ugh. That looks like forever."

"We've made it this far." Ryuto began to walk through the grass.

Brady and Toby groaned in protest and walked along behind him. Kyouya appeared to groan as well, but nobody could hear him. Then he sneezed.

Tsubasa shook his head. Hopefully there'd be a pharmacy in the village.

One grass field later, Ryuto smacked into a wall. That's what he got for walking with his head down.

Tsubasa got a good look at Ryuto's face; it sported the marks of 2 walls and a floor. Perhaps he should start wearing a football helmet.

Ryuto stumbled into the village and fell onto the cobblestones; Toby and Kyouya crouched beside him while Brady went to find someone who knew where the scientists had gone, and Tsubasa went to find cold medicine and an icepack.

It doesn't take long to unearth a pharmacy in an obscure mountain village. Tsubasa walked inside the drugstore and relished for a moment in the joys of air conditioning, then headed to the over-the-counter medicine department.

Walking back towards the counter with a bottle of pills and a small cup of ice, Tsubasa caught a glimpse outside the window of a small cafe across the street. He realised nobody had eaten anything in the past 12 hours and decided to pick up something on his way back. Then maybe everyone would be in a better mood.

Tsubasa walked into the cafe, and the smell of freshly baked coffee cake started his mouth watering. Maybe one slice before he headed back. And a cup of coffee. Couldn't forget the coffee. Because you were supposed to eat coffee cake with coffee, everybody knew that.

He turned from the counter and suddenly a chill ran down his spine; somebody was watching him. He turned towards the corner of the cafe inconspicuously and nearly dropped the coffee cup.

"Ryuga?"

Ryuga smirked at him and said nothing.

"Ryuga, what're you doing here? I thought you disappeared!"

"Evidently not."

Tsubasa stumbled over to the table and sat down shakily.

"Oh...my goodness. We thought you were dead."

"Well I'm not dead."

"Ryuga, it's been 3 years since you disappeared! Why didn't you try to contact us?"

He scowled murderously at Tsubasa. "I hold no responsibilities to all of you. America is a free country."

Tsubasa's brow furrowed. He'd thought perhaps Ryuga had changed in the time since his mysterious disappearance; perhaps he'd been wrong.

"What are you doing in California anyway?" Ryuga looked suspicious now.

Tsubasa gasped. All this time he'd been in California for a reason, and he'd just forgotten it.

"Oh-" He fumbled with the paper bag from the pharmacy. "I'm here with Toby, Ryuto, Kyouya, and some girl tracking some scientist from up the mountain."

Ryuga sat bolt upright, looking scared. "Why?"

"Because they hold the key to me and Toby's past."

The dragon blader paced around the small table, lost in thought, then after a moment, he cried, "Do you have any idea how dangerous those people are?"

Tsubasa laughed nervously. "Ryuga, I'm sure it's nothing we can't handle...we took down Nemesis, after all."

"That was then. This is now. You don't have the power of the star fragments, you used to have, what...20 bladers on your side? Now it's only the 5 of you."

Tsubasa thought, well, perhaps this man does have a heart.

"Do you know where they went?"

"I won't tell you, you're not going after them."

"We get paid afterwards..."

"Don't try to pull that on me. If you get on their wrong side, the whole of Estonia could explode. It could affect all of Europe."

"Ah...so they're in Estonia."

Ryuga looked alarmed. "Aw, nuts. Well if you're so determined to go looking for the destruction of Europe, you'll have to take me with you."

So things had changed in Ryuga's heart.

"All right. That's fine."

"Oh, and...did you say you get paid afterwards?"


	8. Flyout

"...wouldn't you rather keep Europe from falling than figure out where you were born?" Kyouya heard the voices before he saw the figures. The first was a scratchy voice that had an oddly familiar quality to it.

"You make a fair point. But I'd really like to know what happened for the first few years of my life. And I'm sure there's some way to handle this without bringing about a global crisis." So the second person was Tsubasa. Kyouya wondered who he was walking with, and why Brady wasn't back yet.

Brady, the cause of his muteness. He scowled at the cobblestones and thought about leaving her here, in this little tiny town by herself. That would be nice.

His dastardly plans were interrupted by the half-dead person on the ground sitting up with a moan, and rubbing his head. "What did I miss?"

Ryuto was awake, then. Where was Tsubasa with that ice pack?

Tsubasa was rounding the corner now, actually. He collided head-on with Brady, who was coming in the other direction. They rolled aimlessly and landed at the feet of some guy with black clothes on- -the village goth? No, Kyouya now laid eyes on a figure from his past, one which haunted his nightmares and seemed to shadow every thought with his haunting presence.

Ryuga.

Kyouya screamed. But thanks to Brady, nobody heard him. His dignity remained intact. Perhaps she wasn't all bad.

"Ow..." Brady sat up, rubbing her knee. She then eyed Tsubasa's brown paper bag.

"What did you do, stuff water in a bag and call it an ice pack?" she demanded grumpily. Tsubasa looked down at the bag, puzzled.

"Aw, man. It must've melted." He tossed a pack of cough drops to Kyouya as he stood up. But the bag wasn't shut correctly, and he ended up scattering the drops all over the pavement.

"Epic fail."

"Whatever."

And then Brady looked up. She assumed a state of open-mouthedness identical to that of Ryuto, Toby, and Kyouya's upon seeing Ryuga's face.

Tsubasa hadn't seemed to notice. He was still rummaging in that idiot paper bag of his.

"What, now you think you're fish?" quipped the Dragon Emperor sarcastically.

"No, it's just...you're supposed to be dead", came Ryuto's voice from directly behind Kyouya.

"Did you see me die?"

"Well-"

"Did you bury my body?"

"I-"

"Did you say words over my grave?"

"Well, no, but-"

"Then what makes you think I was dead?"

"You disappeared for 3 years", commented Toby drily. "What would make us think you were alive?"

"The fact that I wasn't dead."

"That doesn't make any sense!"

"Well, I'm not dead. End of story."

Ryuto turned his poor bruised head and scowled at the forest they'd come from.

Ryuga chuckled at his little brother's expression.

Tsubasa finally emerged from his beloved shopping bag with a rather wet box, looking triumphant.

"What are you so happy about?"

"I got you guys donuts."

Brady's frown disappeared as she, Kyouya, Ryuto, and Toby lunged for the cardboard box, regardless of its apparent dampness. Tsubasa helplessly tossed the box on the ground and lunged out of the way.

He stood panting next to Ryuga, who grinned at the animal-like bladers who were fighting over the donuts. "Wise move to eat beforehand, huh?"

Tsubasa sighed. "Is there anywhere I can make a phone call? My cell phone's dead, and we can't get to Estonia from here without the aid of a plane."

"Yeah, there's a phone booth by the general store. Mostly only old ladies use it. Knock yourself out."

The eagle blader left the scene, and Ryuga was stuck babysitting the donut-obsessed crazy people.

* * *

Tsubasa returned to the scene of donut murder. Everybody was calmed down now.

"So what's the deal?" Brady inquired.

"They're sending in the helicopter from Oregon now."

"There's one in Oregon?"

"Well the pilot wanted to visit his cousin in America, so he stayed up in Oregon for the extense of the mission."

Toby smiled, picturing the hairy pilot landing the helecarrier on the front lawn of some house in Oregon.

"So when'll he be here?" Ryuto inquired.

"2 hours."

"Wow, not bad", murmured Ryuga.

"Just...no drinking milk on the plane", Toby said. "And you either". This he intoned with a pointed glance at Ryuga.

"What?"

"Just thought it might run in the family."

"What might run in the family?"

"Spitting milk all over the OTHER family."

"Who spat milk on the other...wait, what other family?"

"Forget it. It's too weird to explain."

* * *

Tsubasa looked up to the sky as a throbbing wave of energy pulsed through the air; he felt the helicopter long before he heard it. It was strange.

Oh well. Nothing could surprise him anymore.

The helecarrier hovered just above them as a long,snaking ladder wound down through the damp mountain air. Ryuga was the first one up.

The pilot gasped and fumbled the controls at the sight of him; the helicopter swerved, momentarily unbalanced, before hovering steady again in the evening light. Tsubasa and Toby followed Ryuga up into the carrier, followed quickly by Brady, Kyouya, and Ryuto.

Under the stars they flew, the damp air so heavy around them that it seemed to wrap around the helicopter, thick with fog and almost tangible. Tsubasa leaned his head against the window and fell asleep.


	9. Interlude: 3

Once again we come to the beloved interlude...oh well. Here goes.

* * *

Ryo Hagane was, as usual, subjected to a rude awakening.

"DAD! Wake up! IT'S CHRISTMAS!"

Ryo sat bolt upright in bed. He couldn't believe he'd forgotten.

"Oh, son, I-WHY, YOU-! It's September, Gingka!"

"Aw. Man."

It was then that Ryo noticed his son was wearing a baseball glove on his head. "Just who are you supposed to be, son?"

"Mrs. Darth Vader!"

"Ooo...kay. Cut down on the caffeine pills, will you?"

"Nope!"

"Son...why are you wearing a shirt for pants?" Gingka was indeed wearing a shirt over his jeans.

"Because it's opposite day...can we have ice cream for breakfast, dad?"

"No."

"YAAAAY!"

"Wait-what?"

"It's opposite day so we CAN have ice cream! Since you said no."

"Okay, then...yes."

"WOOHOO!"

"But I thought it was opposite day!"

"Nope, I lied."

"Go mess around with Masamune or something..."

"Okay, dad."

Gingka was gone, leaving his father to dress in peace...

...supposedly.

"DIRECTOR!" Hikaru pounded furiously on the door of his bedroom.

"What?"

"Masamune is wearing my jacket!"

"Okay, okay. I'll be out in a minute!"

Ryo stumbled over a skateboard in the hallway and grabbed Masamune by the back of the neck as he ran past. "Give Hikaru back her jacket now."

"Okay...fine. But it fits my complexion perfectly, don't you think?" He struck a model pose.

"Now."

"FIIINE..."

Ryo commandeered the jacket and returned it to Hikaru, who was glaring murderously at Masamune. "Ok, you two. Skedaddle."

After which, Ryo barricaded himself into his office. Literally. He used a couch. He was surprised he'd survived through breakfast with his son.

He sighed and grabbed the coffee cup off his desk. Then he remembered the coffee pot was in the hallway, beyond his safehouse that was represented by the couch. Perhaps he could go without caffeine for a day?

Or a week?

Who knew how long he'd be barricaded in here. Only to save his life.

Ryo would have preferred a peaceful day, for once in his life. He would have loved the thought of sitting down at a desk for only 8 hours a day instead of 10, drinking coffee without fearing for his neck each time he set foot in the hallway, perhaps having no children terrorizing the place morning noon and night.

But such thoughts had altogether ceased to enter his mind. He had long before learned that to entertain them meant only heartbreak, and that to strive for them meant only emergency room charges and police chases.

He managed to avoid the kids for a few hours that morning, but soon realised he should've packed a sack lunch. Now the cafeteria was the only option. Maybe they wouldn't be there.

Ryo dramatically tiptoed down the hallway, lifting his knees high, arms in a crow-like position that Jack Sparrow would have approved of had he been there.

Perhaps a babysitting pirate would be the only thing that could control his son and Masamune.

Ryo found himself discovered all too soon. Gingka ran past, waving a fish in the air. Ryo decided he'd never seen a thing and tried to continue to the cafeteria, but he was stopped by Masamune with a spear.

"Where did you get that!?"

"The basement! I love the basement!"

"We don't have a basement..."

"Then where did I get THIS!?"

Ryo found the spear waving uncomfortably close to his face.

"Put it down. What are you doing?"

"Surviving in the wild just like Tsubasa!"

"You're not Tsubasa. Now go watch TV."

"Hikaru won't let us."

"Masamune", Ryo said gently, "That was the security camera feed."

"Yeah, we saw you sneaking out of the room for coffee, dad! It was funny when you squeezed around the couch!" Gingka made Ryo jump and caused his ribs to ache in remembrance of the sacrifice for the sake of coffee.

"Where did you get that fish, son?"

"From the fish store in the basement!"

"We don't have a fish store. Or a basement."

"Then where did I get this fish?"

"I don't know, son. Put it away." Gingka obediently put it in the fish sheath at his hip.

Since when did his son carry a fish sheath?

Ryo had learned to ignore it.

He was dragged to a torturous lunch with the boys. Then, around 4 that afternoon, Hikaru's voice crackled tiredly through his intercom.

"Sir, Tsubasa's back." Then she screamed.

Ryo raced downstairs. The reason for intense screamage, as he soon found, was Ryuga's sudden reappearance. Ryo ignored him and focused on the happy fact that Tsubasa was back to babysit.


	10. Epiphany

I returned, once again. Sorry for the delay :)

* * *

Ryo went to lie down for the rest of the afternoon because he had a headache. This left poor Tsubasa to do all his paperwork, giving him a greater sense of respect for the coffee pot in the hallway.

By the end of the work day, Tsubasa was exhausted. Too exhausted to sneak past Gingka's room quietly enough.

"Tsubasa! TSUBASA! Tell us what happened in the wild! Did you eat fish? Did you wrestle a bear? Or maybe, did you -"

"Ask Ryuga." With that, Tsubasa left the two stunned bladers and headed down the side-walk to the apartment.

* * *

And so it was that Tsubasa and Ryo did not get to talk to each other that evening, but 8:00 pm found them both sound asleep. So did Masamune, who was intending to cover them with raw steak in the night. But his plans were foiled by their "cute little faces." Instead he photographed Tsubasa with his stuffed animal and went to watch horror films that would keep him up all night.

Tsubasa woke late that morning. 9:00. 4 hours later than normal. He attributed it to jet lag and Gingka.

He found Ryo camped out in his office; the poor man had reinforced the couch with his desk itself and was lying on the floor, on his stomach, with paper scattered here and there across the carpet.

"Oh, hi. I mean, uh, bow before the great and...powerful...phonic..." Ryo's head lolled to the side. Tsubasa shook the sleepy director awake.

"Oh, hi Tsubasa. Can I help you?"

Then he shrieked with horror. "HOW DID YOU GET PAST THE BARRICADE **OF POWER!?"**

"I moved it, sir."

"You didn't bring GINGKA with you, did you?"

"Of course not."

"DAAAD...WHERE ARE YOU DAD!?"

"GOOD GRAVY. Come on, Tsubasa. Let's go." He jumped out the window with that idiotic cape of his. He forgot Tsubasa could not fly. Tsubasa calmly walked down the stairs to the street below and walked around to the back of the building. Ryo was peering around the opposite corner.

"Sir -"

"HUAGH! TSUBASA! DON'T SCARE ME LIKE THAT!"

"Where are we going?"

"To your house."

"I don't have a house, sir. It's an apartment."

"Oh...why?"

"Because you don't pay me -"

"Okay, okay. Let's go."

* * *

Ryo peered cautiously into the low-ceiling'd apartment. It was lit dimly with what sunlight could make it through the shades. A small hallway led off to the bedroom from the left, and the kitchen table was in the middle of the room. He stooped so he could clear the doorway and settled quietly at the kitchen table, casting his gaze around the room curiously.

Tsubasa made no move, only standing at the doorway. He sometimes got fed up dealing with Ryo's insanity.

Ryo patted the chair across from him, motioning Tsubasa to sit down. And so he did.

"Now I need you to tell me what you found out there", Ryo said gravely.

And so Tsubasa told him the whole story, from how they'd landed on the mountain and something strange had happened, to the reason why he had been covered in milk when he walked back in last night.

"Completely Ryuga's fault, sir. We told him not to drink milk on the plane. He didn't listen."

Tsubasa had come to the end of his story. But Ryo didn't think so.

"And then, you went to bed early and woke up late, and then you came in my office and I said, "Oh, hi -"

"Yes, I know sir."

"Okay. So Ryuga has told you that these scientists have moved their experiments to Estonia...did he happen to tell you where?"

"We asked him on the helicopter. He said he didn't know."

"All right. Well, Estonia's a small part of Europe...I shall contact the European team immediately and see if they can't get aerial shots within the hour."

So saying, Ryo stood and started to exit the room. However, he forgot about the low door frame and hit his head on the top of it. He stumbled woozily out of the building and forgot which way he was going.

"He'll figure it out", Tsubasa murmured to himself softly. And then he turned on the coffee pot.

* * *

"Hello? HELLOOOO...HELLO! JULIAN! WHERE ARE YOU!" Ryo was screaming at the screen.

"Sir?"

"YES, RYUTO?"

"Can I see that webcam a minute?"

Ryuto skilfully pressed the on button.

"Oh thank you."

"Sir? Mr. Director, I can't see you." Julian's voice came over the speakers crackly and slightly distorted. Perhaps because it was raining out.

Brady reached out and flipped the lens cover off the webcam.

"Oh, there you - WHAT! YOU'RE NOT THE DIRECTOR!"

Brady scowled and moved aside.

"EHLLO! IT IS I THE GREAT AND POWERFUL..."

"That's enough now, mister", Brady said in an official tone of voice.

"Okay, fine. We'll cut straight to the chase. Do you own a satellite?"

"What?"

"What he's trying to say is...Tsubasa's some kind of a robot psycho freak -"

"Kyouya, be quiet." Toby stepped forward, speaking for the first time.

"What Ryo is asking for, is aerial shots of northern Europe. We believe that a few persons of conflict are hiding there and intend to nip trouble in the bud." Toby sounded more official than anyone had ever heard him before, and it finally occurred to Tsubasa that Toby was having a hard time with this too.

"Okay...exactly where in Europe are you thinking?" Wells was typing away on another laptop off to the side of the screen.

"Estonia."

"And what are you looking for?"

"Anything that looks suspiciously like a secret lab", Ryuto put in.

"Wow. That's broad."

"Well, it's all we've got."

"Let's see." Wells was typing in "Secret lab."

"No, Wells, that won't work." Sophie took control of the computer.

"Are you looking for a large structure? Because if that's all you've got, it could be anywhere. Undercover of a large city corporation. In a small village in Sinimaed. Even underground, or in the Finland Bay. You can't really work with just a 'secret lab'."

Tsubasa sagged back against the wall, rubbing his face. Why had he trusted only Ryuga's word? Why not ask around?

"Sinimaed...SINIMAED! HOLD ON!" Ryuga was shouting. Tsubasa looked up.

"Sinimaed! I know that name!"

"Really, Ryuga?...do tell."

"When those scientists brought a truck full of lab equipment and stuff down through the village, on their way to that little café for breakfast, I heard one of them say something about Sinimaed...what was it? About doughnuts, or something. About whether they'd have this good of doughnuts in Sinimaed."

"You should've said so before!" Toby yelled.

"Well it sounded like cinnamon. So I thought they were saying, 'cinnamon doughnuts'."

"So that narrows it down."

"Uh-huh." Wells was back at the keyboard now. "Well, I think your best bet would be on the east side of the Sinimaed stretch, somewhere either near the coast of the Finland Bay or on the border of Russia. There's quite a large lake there and the Finland Bay, of course, and I think that the scientists would find it useful to have the water nearby without having to go into a city every time they need more water or when their pipes go berserk. Easier to keep the secret lab secret."

"That's excellent, Wells", Tsubasa said, "And they must be funded by some other large country or corporation, like Russia for instance. All the more reason to choose the Sinimaed region for their projects, since on the east end it's bordering close to Russia. Not to mention that the less-travelled parts of the mountains would be excellent for a base or two."

"Well I'm not getting it on aerial shots, but they could be hidden beneath the trees. I hope you have some good luck, my friends. Tsubasa, if you and your team need any help while you're investigating in Europe, my team and I would be happy to provide it."

"Thanks a lot, Julian!" Toby smiled.

"Gentlemen...and lady...TO CINNAMON!"

"Ryuga, I think you mean Sinimaed."

"Okay, TO SINIMAED!"


End file.
